Open forum, vol. 2, no. 14 (April, 1925)

Life itself is the great Educator.

a

Vol. D3

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, APRIL 4, 1925

The New School

THE NEW SCHOOL is the child of THE NEW

AGE.

Age 1S NOT peculiarly and emphatically

ieee Gfought. The past produced as great

Thinkers aS any the present can show. Nor is the

New Age, so far as can be proven, especially an

age of Character. The moral leaders of yesterday

loom larger than the moral leaders of today. It

ig hardly enough to describe the New Age even as

an age of Deed. Men achieved as heroically and as

dramatically centuries ago as they do in our own

times.

The New Age IS peculiarly and emphatically an

age of WOR K-the age of the TOOL. At this point

there is no questioning our superiority. Herein lies

the difference between yesterday and today. The

increased numbers of mankind, the wider distribu-

tion of man over the earth's surface, and the greater

intimacy of his contacts in the civilizations of today,

the very destructiveness of modern warfare and its

menace to the present world order all proceed direct-

ly from man's inceased command of industry and

commerce through the enlargement of his tool-

making and tool using powers.

The INDUSTRIAL emphasis of the New Age has

widely affected education throughout the more ad-

vanced industrial nations. The standardizing of the

mechanical process has been followed naturally by

the standardizing of the educational process. _ This,

also quite naturally, has led to certain revolts in the

educational field on behalf of individuality, spon-

taneity, and variety in the cultural life.

These revolts, however, have confined themselves

to exceptionally circumstanced individuals, or to the

years of immaturity, and have as yet shown little

understanding of the revolutionary character of that

educational transformation which a real industrial

control is bound to command. Such instances as

have been widely cited in the extraordinary edu-

cational achievements of young Sidis and the Stoner

girl mean little or nothing for the new education

which the workers of the world are going to create

and direct. Neither is Organic education a serious

approach to the great change in the school field,

inasmuch as it is but a new version of the old

ideology which finds in the unfolding of the indi-

vidual the hope and progress of the world.

The same objection holds even more emphatically

against the much vaunted Vocational Training, fos-

tered by the masters of the industrial world in

the interests of a more serviceable body of trained

0x2122 workers for the creating of greater profits on the part

of those who exploit labor. Neither this specialism

in the field of merely mechanical efficiency, nor the

more academic specialism of educators and _ scien-

tists who have reacted in the intellectual world to

the division of labor in the industrial world, can give

us the cue to the new education that is to be.

Even the Labor College is not the New School.

It is too academic still, or too much enveloped in

the academic atmosphere. The Labor College, as

we of the western world know it, is not, and cannot

be on any large scale a part of the common day's

program by which the common people get their

daily bread. If groups of them try to make it so

by featuring it as a part of especially-created work-

ing-class communities, isolated communal experi-

ments, economic monasticisms as it were, they are

compelled to forego a full subsistence in most cases,

or if they get this much, abundance of daily bread,

they must get along without that wealth and variety

of social cultural experience which is necessary to a

real abundance of life. The New School does not

build on separateness, either the academic separate-

hess which has too much characterized education

ae far, or an artificial non-conformity of economic

e,

`The New School is rather the union of the in-

dustrial and the educational process in the actual

Hela of everyday human operations. It is the com-

bination of study and work, of the whole range of

the cultural life with the whole range of man's

material activities. The tool is primary and funda-

Daniel not secondary and incidental to it, and is

aa noHs control in it, not a plaything of the

were grades. The New School will be of the

vance Bane by the working class, and for the

sigalg ne ane and not the special creation of and

eer tc a eel aristocracy, nor a concession from

make oe escents who must needs be trained to

DOHtOSs to. oe or especially coached as com-

he places of power.

MMOs ie

Headquarters, Room 506, Tajo Building,

First and Broadway, Los Angeles, California

The I. P. U. is, to give the name in full, THE IN-

TERNATIONAL POLYTECHNICAL UNIVERSITY.

It was organized in San Diego, California, in April,

1924. The expansion of its work has called for a

more centrally located headquarters, therefore the

removal to Los Angeles, to the address given above.

The incorporation is under the laws of the State of

California. The names of the Directors and Officers,

as also of the INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL OF AD-

VISERS, will be found on the letterhead, or supplied

on request.

As the name indicates the I. P. U. is, both as to the

spirit of the undertaking and the field of its opera-

tions, INTERNATIONAL. Although its present head-

quarters are in California certain of the most active

of its promoters and co-operators, it will be ob-

served, are resident in an Hastern state, and the

intended location of its immediate educational work

is in Russia, or within the territory somewhere of

the U. 8. S. R., that ig The Union of Socialist Soviet

Republics.

The reasons for this location of the educational

plant are such as should make wide appeal to men

and women of quite varying political belief, and

without reference to the measure of their consent

to the particular political institutions of Russia

at the present time.

Beyond question Russia, or more properly the ter-

ritory of the U. S. S. R. presents today a unique

educational opportunity for those who would stress

the international field and the industrial method, in

other words for those who have in view the New

Education.

Nowhere else in the world is there to be found

such a large body of economically undeveloped peas-

antry as the 120,000,000 Russian peasants affords.

Nowhere else in the world is there such an incal-

culable wealth of unexhausted and almost untapped

natural resources as in the vast region, three times

the area of the United States of America, over which

the Russian government presides.

Nowhere else is there such an opening for the

introduction of modern machinery and improved in-

dustrial technique on all lines.

Nor is there anywhere on the planet such a call

to practical philanthropy, the development of a peo-

ple who are ever and anon subject to the ravages

of famine on a world menacing scale to the point

where they can not only regularly and assuredly

support themselves but can also contribute enor-

mously to the productive wealth of the whole world.

At the same time, and because of the items men-

tioned above with others which might be enumerated,

there is opportunity in Russia at the present mo-

ment, as perhaps nowhere else on earth, for trying

out on a large scale a new self-supporting educational

program. What Hampton Institute and Tuskegee

have done so admirably and with such wide-spread

benefits here in the United States, in the field of

Negro education, there is reason to believe can be

surpassed in the field of inter-racial education and

in relation to the greater opportunities which Russia

presents.

If for humanitarian reasons only this work ought

to appeal to all. It has been demonstrated by com-

petent investigators and experimenters that the

Russian farmer, if trained to the use of up-to-date

machinery and in the technique of western farming

can overcome the periodic famines of his section of

the world field, and that instead of millions dying

of starvation he can feed himself and innumerable

millions more. A dollar invested in such self-sustain-

ing and world-provisioning work in Russia is better

spent than in spasmodic, emergency relief, on the

one hand, or in furnishing to the well fed merely

academic education. It is certainly one of the su-

preme opportunities of the hour.

Our work can claim for itself that it is philan-

thropie in spirit in the best sense of that word, as

this is not a money-making adventure, nor do the

promoters of it seek dividends or profits for them-

selves. It is an educational enterprise not an invest-

ment scheme for the exploiting of the Russian peo-

ple or any other people.

Also it is being conducted on conservative lines,

with a minimum of over-head expenditure for the

development of the work, and through the care-

fully worked out plans of men who have studied

the Russian field at first hand, and know not only

the conditions there but have long experience in

the field of education and agricultural enterprise

here.

No. 14

ie ask ae

the TS SR

Whether the government of the United States of

America ghall recognize the government of the Union

of Socialist Soviet Republics is an.issue which does

not concern us here. There are many conservative

Americans, including many American capitalists and

big business men, who believe that such recognition

is sensible and inevitable, and does not involve any

endorsement of Bolshevism at all. But with that

question this article has nothing to do.

Neither are we discussing here whether the course

of the Bolshevik government with respect to polit-

ical prisoners in Russia has been decent or defens-

ible. There are many out and out friends of Rus-

sia in the United States of America who think that

the treatment of political dissent there at the pres-

ent time is both unfortunate and unjustifiable.

The issue here is not political, it is economic.

The United States of America, whether politically in

advance or behind Russia, has on the economic side

two things that Russia needs, and that Russia must

have, whether it stays Bolshevik or not, if Russia

is to feed, and clothe and house, and educate her

people. The first is capital, that is money. The

second is industrial technique, that is modern ma-

chinery and machine organization. The two are

here as they are nowhere else in the world. The

radicals of Russia recognize this fact as frankly

as do the conservatives. They know that if Rus-

sia ig to solve the primary problem of giving de-

cent living conditions to her millions of workers, es-

pecially the peasant class, 120,000,000 strong, she

must look to the United States for the financial and

the technical equipment necessary to the moderniz-

ing of her economic life.

Many Americans who are skilled in the use of

modern tools, and who could do a work of practical,

everyday education in Russia of incalculable value

have not the money to finance themselves and the

equipment which they would require if such service

is to be done. Russia has not the money to put in

their hands. Get this in mind. Russia cannot buy

ability just now. She has not the money to finance

her own men and women of ability, much less to

invest in imported brains and experience. Those

who would give their hands and brains to Russia just

now must bring their tools with them, and by tools

is meant the whole body of material equipment that

it ig necessary to import from the outside, and the

money to keep the plant going until it can support

itself.

Russia can give land, rich land, capable of enor-

mously increased production under the application of

scientific use. Also, in many instances, Russia can

supply buildings, if these are needed and can be used

to full advantage. But bare hands, or skilled brains,

without the tools to make the hands and brains

effective, and the money to feed the worker till he

can raise food for himself, Russia cannot yet employ.

But a few experts, with a moderate amount of

capital, can get access to natural resources, to com-

mon labor power, and to marketing opportunities in

Russia today in such measure and under such con-

ditions as to make possible miracles of human Servy-

`ice there.

"I know what can be done," says an experienced

California agriculturist and commission man who

has made marked success on both lines here in

America. "I have been there, within the past year,

and studied the situation at first hand in a thor-

oughly scientific way. I know the soil there, the

markets, the whole field. I know that a certain big

estate that was offered us, worth half a million now,

can with a Hundred and Fifty Thousand Dollars to

handle it, be made to double its value in a season,

and can be within a year made self-supporting as a

kind of agricultural normal-training center where

young Russian peasants can be quickly schooled not

only into self-support, but into instructors of other

peasants all over Russia, so that famine there need

never happen again even in the most unfavorable

years. The land is to be had; the buildings are to be

had, with much other equipment of immense value;

and the workers are to be had, young men who will

be detailed to study scientific agriculture as young

men are detailed elsewhere to get military training.

The opportunity is simply beyond words. All that

we need is a few thousand dollars, nothing to the

tens of thousands thrown away now on _ sporadic

famine relief."

And this man has himself subscribed Ten Thou-

sand Dollars to the I. P. U., which he means to dou-

ble and treble as quickly as he can, and will give

himself, as well as his funds.

SER TOF Re we mer Se et er Ore RSC US Ter eres MER eet eee

Z

Aims and Ideals of the

International Polytech-

nical University

By Dr. Charles Kuntz

"Knowledge is Power .. Education Imparts it."

Positive Knowledge is the Power for Good, and Posi-

tive Education Imparts it.

All knowledge is objectified in the cultural environ-

ment into which man is born, and within which all

nature conquered by man throughout the ages of

his evolution is reflected. Manifestly for education

to fill its appointment, it must so shape the life of

the growing generation as to enable it to gain com-

plete knowledge of and thereby absolute control over

the ever-growing social environment, the product of

man's creative genius.

The vast cultural inheritance is like life itself,

which is dynamic, never to stand still. Human en-

ergy is indeed the mainspring, the make and break

switch, as it were, in the endless process of the

transformation of energy. Human Power is there-

fore forever the indispensable link in this Process,-

a link that turns the entire chain of transforma-

tion of energy, into an ever expanding cultural

environment.

In the long course of history, human gociety has

become stratified. It has fallen to the lot of the

lower strata to furnish the man-power that trans-

forms all energy into culture, while the mastery, and

hence the enjoyment of the latter, has remained the

privilege of the upper strata. Knowledge has thus

been estranged from those directly creating its prod-

ucts, and has been mystified for and by those fully

enjoying them.

The advent of the Industrial Age introduces new

factors both into the methods of applying man-power

in the process of culturizing the transformation of

energy, and in the inter-relations of the social strata

among themselves. The result is a different ap-

proach both to the acquisition of knowledge, and

to its distribution. Education becomes a problem,

a complete problem in a socially stratified state; it

becomes an industrial problem of how to render man-

power most efficient in the transformation process:

known as production; it becomes a human problem

of how to educate man fully to live and. to enjoy

his creation,-the cultural environment.

To the student of Sociology, it is obvious that in a

socially stratified state the human aspect of the

problem is the less capable of solution, the more its

industrial aspect is stressed by the upper strata.

The result, therefore, is a truncated system of lower.

and higher education, the lower made in part ac-

cessible to the masses, the higher left open to the

few who are able to pay for it. That such a system

of education is anomalous is no less obvious than

would be a system of bringing up children to the

age, say, of 12 or 14, upon biologically unfit food, and

permitting their growth at that time to be arrested.

The abolition of social stratification in Russia, con-

sequent upon the breakdown of `the economico-

individualistic basis of her state structure has

brought to life the imperative demand for a cardinal

change of the system of education. The gap _ be-

tween lower and higher education is being bridged

over, and education like its substratum organic

growth is to progress along a continuous evolutionary

line. Methodology, therefore, is so directed as to

enable the pupil to acquire knowledge while creating

cultural values; in other words, the new education

in Russia is seeking to impart knowledge through

the medium of the cultural environment, wherein the

knowledge of age lies embodied. It is the new

methodology that determines the organization of

the new school. It promises to render universal

higher education possible; it points the way how

to organize production ag an educational factor. It

further suggests that while production is rendered

educational, the school can be so organized as to

make education self-supporting and thus universally

accessible.

Now it is characteristic of knowledge that it knows

no national boundaries. This is particularly true

of its refined precipitate, science,-this concentrated

reflex of the cultural environment. Science ig truly

international. It is not limited by time or space.

Every bit of archaeology reveals this truth; ethnol-

ogy confirms it; history teaches it.

Archimedes said: Give me the fulcrum and I shall

lift the globe. Education in Russia offers the ful-

crum where the proper lever, properly applied, will

This Week's

"You can like it or you can dislike it, but you can't

Issue

ignore it." This, which was said originally about red

hair, applies more emphatically to what is going on

in Russia today. Russia touches everybody. to the

quick. Every time we have Russia as the subject

of discussion in our Music Art Hall Forum, Sunday

nights, we have a crowded house, as last Sunday

night when the debate between Bell and Plotkin

crowded the house to the fullest capacity. So also

when Anna Louise Strong spoke before the City Club

the attendance filled the gallery as well as the floor.

Because these things have happened here, and be-

cause the subject is so tense with life, we are giving

this issue of THE OPEN FORUM very largely to

matters concerning Russia. But it is not Russian

politics, where the battle rages, that we are stressing,

but Russian Education, and education at the point of

world production and world feeding. The letter ad-

dressed to Upton Sinclair we have had in our hands

a couple of weeks, the fine article by Dr. Kuntz,

Educational Director of The I.P.U. for two months,

and for a longer period people have been asking for

data from all over the field, as far north as Seattle,

concerning the I.P.U. itself. The purpose of this is-

sue is not controversial, but to set forth the im-

measurable educational and humanitarian opportun-

ity which Russia presents just now. Bundle copies

of this issue will be sent out, at the rate of 2 cents

per copy, as long as they last. Get your orders in

soon. Look for other special issues on special lines

soon.

See se ve Sy eee

"There is nothing much that interests me just now

except what is coming out of Russia. As to the rest,

I feel like one who is watching a lot of men labor-

iously picking out wall-paper patterns for a house

that is burning down."-A New York Newspaper wo-

man to a Western Editor.

--_-_.%-______

Service, Not Profit

The Russian peasant sows his grain with a religious

feeling that he must do this in order that others may

eat. This is far removed from the money-making

spirit of the cities, and despite the shrewdness that

is the other side of the countryman's nature every-

where, if the Communists keep on sincerely trying

to organize life for mutual aid, the peasant will not

hinder them.-Harry F. Ward, of the American Civil

Liberties Union, after a tour of Russia.

Federated Press.

aid in lifting man out of the narrow nationalist rut

into the empires of humanism.

To help in this work, a group of educators and

sympathizers have organized the International Poly-

technical University, with the object of enlisting sup-

port, both material and spiritual, of all those who

earnestly desire to contribute to the advancement of:

man through the channels of education.

The ultimate goal set by the International Poly-

technical University is to build on an agricultural

basis an economico-educational institution, gelf-sup-

porting in the above sense. The Soviet Government

has declared its readiness to transfer for the purpose

of building such an enterprise one or more of its

nationalized estates, with all the inventory thereon.

Likewise, the Soviet Department of Education is

ready to give its educational support.

The International Polytechnical University for its

part proposes to invest in the enterprise within a

certain specified time a given sum of money-say

from one-fourth to one-half million gold rubles. This

will be expended for Agricultural and Industrial ma-

chinery; technical and scientific educational ma-

terials; and in any and all other necessary equip-

ment, as well as in the salaried personnel, and in

organizational and operating expenditures necessary

for initialing and carrying forward its part in the

realization of the aforesaid goal.

The International Polytechnical University further

proposes that all moneys invested in, and all surplus

accruing from, the successful operation of the enter-

prise, shall become an economico-educational exten-

sion fund. The same to be used by the Institution

for enlarging its agricultural base, improving its

educational facilities, and extending and multiplying

its industrial activities so as to. gradually develop

into an ever more efficient economico-educational

unit.

Anna Louise Strong

on Russia

Anna Louise Strong, well-known writer, anq auth,

or in particular of that remarkable book on Russia

"THE FIRST TIME IN HISTORY," was in Log 4),

geles and vicinity last week, and is now in Seattle

for a brief visit. While here in Southern Californiy

she spoke for the First Congregational Church it

Pasadena, the First Congregational Church jn Long

Beach, and at the University of California, Southey

Branch. Also she addressed The City Club of [y

Angeles, Wednesday noon-tinmre, March 25th. The

following excellent resume of her address _befoy

The City Club is from The City Club Bulletin.

"I went to Russia in August, 1921, at the be.

ginning of the greatest famine in her history,

with the Friends Relief. I had the good fortune

to take the first relief cars in. Since that time

I have travelled throughout European-Russig

from the Artic to the Black Sea." Thus simply

did Anna Louise Strong, special correspondent

of Hearst's International Magazine in Russia jp.

troduce herself to the City Club on Wednesday,

Then for fifty minutes she told us, quietly and

impressively, of what Russia has been doing for

three years since she has had peace.

What impressed her most in Russia was the

speed and popular zeal for reconstruction. The

great war brought in its train for Russia, invo-

sion, civil war, blockade, and the greatest epi:

demic since the middle ages, plus the worst re.

corded drought in her history. The civil war was

a real war, with fighting in every town. One

town, for instance, was taken and_ re-taken

seventeen times. In the words of the John Bull

Magazine, published in England, Russia has en-

erged in three years from chaos to order in

most spectacular fashion. In 1924, for instance,

the increase in planted acreage was 8 per cent,

in live stock 25 per cent, in industrial products

35 per cent, in transportation 35 per cent and in

currency 250 per cent.

Today Russia has been recognized by all other

nations, including Italy, England, France and

Japan. Only the United States has come to no

understanding with the Soviet republic.

The spirit of the people in Russia is a reyela-

tion. They find that reconstruction ig romance.

The newspapers give over the principal space to

reconstruction items. One Moscow newspaper

has increased its circulation, because of a recon: -

struction contest, from 80,000 to 500,000 in ye ee

years. "

sia is the question of what contribution ; `

making to progress, if any, and what dires:

She is taking as a nation. I come from a fam!

said Miss Strong, which came to our Atlantic

shores in the seventeenth century, and continued

going west until it landed in Seattle. The devel:

opment of the west in the United States has

taken something like a century. Russia is the

great new west. It has the greatest extent of un

occupied soilin the world. It has more land, more

timber, more natural and mineral] resources than

any other nation of today. Russia will develop

much more quickly than we did, because we have

changed from a craft to an industrial age. In

the United States individualism was basic in our

development. The individual took and kept what

he discovered in the way of natural resources.

We developed initiative by this process, and tre

mendous industrial progress. It is for this that

we are known in the world.

Russia is beginning with a new theory, namely,

that natural resources are the property of the

entire people, no matter who finds them. They

can be leased temporarily, but not alienated.

This attitude has become the accepted psychol:

ogy in Russia, namely, that social wealth belongs

to society, and to municipalities belongs the it

crease in land values made by the existence of

the city. It will be most interesting to discover

just what this new theory will mean in the dcent

velopment of the new Russia of tomorrow.

Miss Strong paid particular attention to the

educational movements such as the children's

farm on the Volga, in which she is particularly

interested, and to the Big Brother and Sister

Movement now going on. It is for this childret's

farm that she is at the present in the United

States,

Miss Strong's address is 508 Garfield Street,

Seattle, Washington.

American Militarism

and American

Education

Here is a letter from one of the finest and bravest

women it has been my privilege to know, and that is

Criminal Syndicalism

In California

(Cal. Defense Committee)

i; Right Out of Russia

The following letter tells its own story. a was

written in this present year, as the date indicates,

d came from a group of Pacific Coast people who

A te iece of practical educational work

ye trying out a pi :

ttle . Russia educational in the big, broad, human sense

Mig :

uth.

Sia,

The members of the Judiciary committee of the

California legislature have once more tabled a bill

aimed at the repeal of the Criminal Syndicalism law.

Its realism will appeal to all

L th

Oly

Ler")

of the New Education.

who are trying to

on in the land whi

world today.

understand sincerely what is going

ich is the "`trying-out" place of the

saying a good deal, for she is by no means the only

worth-while woman I have known. She is Jane

Garrott of Seattle, and the letter which follows here-

with is one which she recently sent to The Union-

As most of you will remember, a similar action was

taken two years ago. This time, however, the ex-

ponents of slavery did not go to the extremes to

Loy : ; 5 z g which they went two years ago in order to crush

The Commune "Seattle," Record of Pat Cre ae pe mae whtiolt ae any signs of sympathy that members of the legisla-

fore Station Tzelina, Russia, Garrott deals = ene wan ae coe HAS LoSen aki ture might have for the four score innocent workers

January 20, 1925. pains " be entirely familiar, and it oe oe ye o who are rotting behind the bars of California prisons

i ur. Upton Sinclair, there is eromeugous need wn Te sabe hie ar because they had the courage to protest against serv-

dona. Callt: the public. While Russia is marshalling her soldie's itude. They did not purchase front page space in the

y Fert : into agricultural schools, and training them to hate shat : : : 5

le Dear Comrade:- wamate ts se ttok for tis abolitioA. our ainthiovtties es os truth BUDD eSsOrs in which to run iat es,

: We have received your letter and the books are bribing the young men of America to become Pe ee ee De ee oF

? for which we wish to thank you. They are help- the puppets of a New Prussianism, and the swash- a ides ial ea deca Seas se ae

; ing uS a great deal to pass our time during the buckling boot-lickers of predatory wealth. ent at the hearing to denounce organized labor and

, winter months. "The most impressive sight I saw in Russia," re- eulogize Greed. They had the judiciary Committee

y, Comrade, Sinclair, you have once lived in a marked an American who recently returned from that too well trained for that this time, and they knew it

d commune so we will tell you what we have ex- country, "was the Red Army, marching on a ape ag wasn't necessary.

r perienced ~ a Lb eee eee = eve, with books under their arms oe Bee ibe" cule Halle sopposition- te. the-veeaaione oe

commune life in Bo ae ae a cae One might say that the most depressing Se in open hearing held March 9th came from the Shipping

Rs composed of the following: DET SCRBEWERES America is the strutting militarism that preval's 0x2122 Interests. That combine was represented by an At-

3 loggers, 10 per cent small farmers, 10 per cent our schools of Higher Learning, and which 1s infect- torney. Daniel Ryan, and W. J. Peterson, whom

2: miners and the balance is gombeped of people ing even the grammar grades. The American plun- many will remember as a former chief of police of

`i who have followed different trades. All these derbund have not invested in education for nothing. Oakland, and who is now in charge of the sailors

i eG cron Now ee a Editor Union Record: fink hall in San Francisco. These worthies had evi-

; Nome. We are of five different nationalities. The bribes that college authorities, in part- Sen ee Vere

n None of us have had any higher education. At nership with the army machine, are offering to from memory most of the stock-in-trade taischoode

present there are 135 people in all-67 men, 29 students are working. Our students are given ; :

i] | eae ee eee shed 1ibiiey,"and eubsistence; if as delivered by those stool-pigeons in the court rooms

1- women and the : cee Oy aes BONG A nip Lewis for the of this state, for the sum of two hundred and fifty

; Our purpose is to try and prove eh a com- peat id ag Nao a Sadie oSb lone Brady, at our dollars per day.

t a As - Aaeus ae University, says eo percentage of R. O. - be The California State Federation of Labor and the

8 taining about 13,000 acres, 100 miles southeast _men who have Sigtiod Uprir She Shae San Francisco Labor coe were represented by

n of Rostov on the Don, on the Vladicaucasian creasing. Paul Sharronpure and John O'Connell, who went be-

Heo As times get harder and jobs become scarcer fore the Committee oo `Upor ously supported Assem-

| those student-officers who are willing to live in blyman Hornblower am his effort to secure sufficient

y Before the war this country was the home of idleness at the expense of the tax-payers may support in the Committee to get the bill onto the

d floor of the Legislature. The Committee, however,

or.

eS ee On

ee ee ee

ee ee OS OS Oe re Oe re eee

the well-known Don horses. Cattle and sheep-

raising was carried on quite extensively also.

Grain raising was only a side line then but now

it takes the lead. We came to Russia with the

latest American agricultural machinery amount-

ing to $120,000.

So far our attainments have been: The first

year's crop was. 950 acres; the second year's

crep area was 3240 acres; and our plan for next

is 5400 acres. The principal crop is wheat.

have met with many difficulties. About

`Y of our members have left for different

of the world with tales of woe. The main

" _ reasons are: Malaria and the lowered standard

of living and also their lack of faith in a com-

mune. This caused quite a bit of discouragement

among the remaining members but in spite of all

this we have laid a firm foundation for a home-

like commune.

We manage our affairs by having a soviet

composed of six members and the chairman, who

is also the manager of all the business affairs.

All of the work is divided into different depart-

ments. Hach department has its own manag-

Ing committee. These committees form the gen-

eral work council. Then we have the revision

committee, medical unit, school committee, enter-

tainment committee, etc., and sectors of the

Many different organizations in Russia.

The commune takes care of all the members'

needs.

The lack of capital hag caused us many diffi-

culties. It forced us to bring our standard of

living down about 40 per cent `at first, but now

we have already been able to raise it consider-

ably. One of the most difficult problems we en-

countered wags how to get dairy stock, but we

have just about overcome it now. At present

our stock amounts to: 115 head cattle, 250 sheep,

i ae 15 horses and poultry 800. Our largest

cen y Income go far has been grain, prin-

Ee y wheat. Even if we were in last summer's

ught area we were able to supply the sur-

roundi :

unding peasantry with twenty carloads of seed

wh : , :

eat. This was a triumph of power farming.

F : : 0x00B0 :

Tom the war-time ruins we have torebuild

e : :

Aes since nearly all of the buildings were

estroyed then.

be expected to increase unless the students them-

selves take some action against militarism.

In Yale University the bribes have been sugar-

coated. Says the editor of THE NEW STUD-

ENT:

"The notion of catching them young has evi-

dently appealed to the Deans at Yale. Special

pains have been taken to equip the R. O. T. C.

so that the heart of every Freshman will skip

with joy. Freshman have been promised horses,

polo ponies, field guns, pistols and uniforms."

Still a few students have rebelled, and relig-

ious leaders are occasionally courageous enough

to help them. Sherwood Eddy, prominent officer

of the Y. M. C. A., is going about the country

telling students this: "A TIME COMES WHEN

A MAN CAN BEST SERVE HIS COUNTRY BY

RESISTING ITS GOVERNMENT."

The whole world is looking for boys who have

the bravery and the manliness to oppose an un-

just demand of their own government. What

shall be their answer to the challenge?

Jane Garrott

We are conducting propaganda work in the

vicinity to quite an extent. Our place is the

center of this neighborhood and the peasantry

come from far and near to the programs and

celebrations. Once a week we have moving pic-

tures and also on holidays.

great help here to enlighten the peasants. Most

of the films circulated in country places are of

agriculture, stockraising and education and use-

ful hints of the every-day needs of the peasant.

We are planning to have a reel of films taken

of our operations. This, if carried out, will be

quite a treat to the comrades in America for

they can see how communes really operate here

in the republic where workers and peasants rule.

Comrade Sinclair, we invite you to pay a visit

to this strange land and also our place, for we

are sure that you will find many new and inter-

esting facts to write about.

With greetings from all of the comrades,

Fraternally yours,

(MISS) KERTTU LEINO.

PS: Allow us to hope that in the future we will

receive your new works which are a rare treat

to us. Same.

These films are. x"

had simply granted the open hearing as a means of

pacifying the craft union element of the state. Never

at any time was there any doubt as to the outcome.

Among the members of the Committee was a gen-

erous sprinkling of lawyers, who are on the pay-roll

of various large California corporations. Naturally,

those arguments which decided their decision were

not heard on the floor of the public hearing.

An article appearing recently in the San Francisco

Daily Herald stated that it would be ridiculous for

anyone to assume that a legislature that had so little

sense as to pass such a law, could be expected to re-

peal it. We wholly agree with them, and will go as

far as to state that, had the Criminal Syndicalism

law been repealed by the state legislature, we would

expect some other just as vicious anti-labor measure

to come into being.

For the benefit of any who might not be familiar

with the California Criminal Syndicalism law, we will

state that this statute was enacted during the post-

war hysteria, in 1919. It was rushed through with-

out argument, and the man who introduced the bill

has admitted that he had not read it, and did not

know what it contained at the time he brought it

before the legislature. To date, one hundred and

forty four members of the I.W.W. have been sen-

tenced to prison under this law. More than eighty

are still behind the bars, convicted solely on the tes-

timony of the treacherous characters mentioned

above. These men were rail-roaded to prison in an

attempt to preserve the present decaying order of

society, and to allay the fears of the ruling classes:

The function of the state is to regulate the relations

springing between the masses and the masters in the

present system of production for profit; and to AL-

WAYS adjust things in the interests of the Masters.

We cannot expect any consideration from the ma-

chinery built up and developed by the Master Class

for their own protection. We are not dissappointed

by the action of the California Legislature. The only

hope of freeing our Class War Prisoners lies in the

hands of Labor.

AGITATE - EDUCATE - ORGANIZE - STRIKE!

--_-___ e-_-_----.

Every great cause has to fight its way against the

leaden apathy or the vitriolic antagonism of a host

of those who ought to be its most ardent supporters

and most self-sacrificing friends.

THE OPEN FORUM

Published every Saturday at 506 Tajo Building,

Los Angeles, California, by The Southern California

Branch of The American Civil Liberties Union.

Phone: TUcker 6836.

MANAGING EDITORS

Robert Whitaker Clinton J. Taft

LITERARY EDITOR

Esther Yarnell ;

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

Upton Sinclair Kate Crane Gartz J H. Ryckman

Doremus Scudder

Ethelwyn Mills

Fanny Bixby Spencer

Leo Gallagher

Subscription Rates-One Dollar a Year, Five Cents

per Copy. In bundles of ten or more to one address,

Two Cents Each.

Advertising Rates on Request.

Entered as second-class matter Dec. 138, 1924, at

the post office at Los Angeles, California, under the

Act of March 3, 1879.

SATURDAY, APRIL 4, 1925

COMING EVENTS

KALKI KI KK OG ok

EVERY SATURDAY NIGHT-OPEN DISCUSSION

At Eight O'clock

A Free Education is Offered at

EDUCATIONAL CENTER

INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

224 South Spring Street, Room 218

a

Free Workers Forum meets Monday Nights at

8:15 o'clock at 420 N. Soto St., (one block north of

Brooklyn Ave.).

APRIL 6-"THE WORLD LABOR MOVEMENT,"

by A. Plotkin.

i

Education for the Daily Life

Los Angeles just now is in the midst of a civic

campaign. The man who is most prominently ad-

vertised for the office of Mayor, and who has re-

signed from the Federal Bench, a life office worth

Ten Thousand a year, for the uncertainties of this

mayoralty campaign, represents a remarkable com-

bination of "the moral forces" of the city with the

backing of predatory wealth here. Big Business is

behind him, and also the Big Churches. He poses

as a Christian man, through whom the bad fame

of the city for individual lawlessness and crime is

to be redeemed, and he is obviously a social reaction-

ary of the most pronounced type. Conservatism,

which is another name for the exploitation of the

common man, is the Defender Of Personal Morality

and the champion of Personal Religion. Therefore

the Ministerial Union of Los Angeles shuts its eyes

to social plunder and lines up with the plunderbund

to save the individual morality of the town.

With municipal politics this paper is not concern-

ed, nor is "The Church of the New Social Order."

But that church is otherwise known to its own

people as "The Congregation of the Daily Life.' It

was intended as announced last week, to discontinue

indoor meetings with the end of March, but for rea-

sons not necessary to stress here, it has been de-

cided to stay indoors at least another month. So

the Sunday morning meetings will be held as usual

at 10:45 o'clock Sunday mornings through the month

of April in Symphony Hall, 232 South Hill Street, and

Robert Whitaker will give the morning address.

And the subjects this coming month will deal with

personal rather than social and economic issues, or

rather, with personal problems in the light of social

and economic understanding. Here they are, the

subjects to be discussed week by week.

WHAT ABOUT YOUR HEALTH?

WHAT ABOUT FAMILY LIFE?

WHAT ABOUT GETTING ON IN THE WORLD?

WHAT ABOUT PERSONAL RELIGION?

All of these subjects discussed in a quite unchurch-

ly untheological, way, and always in the light of

modern social science and the new order that is to

be.

An Appeal to the

Courts

The education of the American people through

their courts of law is going on apace. Much of it is

an education in lawlessness, class feeling, and the

ruthlessness of power which our owning classes will

live to regret, or will compensate for in the calamities

of their children in days to come. The Ford and

Suhr, Billings and Mooney cases in California, with

a hundred less notorious miscarriages of justice in

this state, are instances in point. Outside of Cali-

fornia there is no better known case of conspicuous

judicial lawlessness than the Sacco-Vanzetti prose-

cution in Massachussetts. Concerning all these cases,

and a multitude more in our America, the remark of

a New York minister of prominence might well be

taken to heart by our conservative classes.

"The courts of America," he said, with deep feel-

ing, "are giving the workers some dangerous train-

ing in lawlessness, training which will return to them

with fearful interest to pay thereon before many gen-

erations have passed."

At the crowded mass meeting of the American

Civil Liberties Union in Los Angeles Sunday eve-

ning, March 28, 1925, the following resolutions were

unanimously passed.

"Whereas we the members of the American

Civil Liberties Union, Southern California

Branch, believe that a great injustice has been

committed in the name of the state of Massa-

chussetts, by railroading Nicola Sacco and Bar-

tolomeo Vanzetti to prison for an offense which

has not been justly and conclusively proved, and

Whereas, efforts have been frustrated time

and time again in an attempt to gain a new trial

in spite of new evidence brought forward to

prove said men not guilty of the offense as charg-

ed, and

Whereas, we believe said Sacco and Vanzetti

were victims of prejudice against them as radi-

cals and foreigners, and

Whereas, we believe that it is the duty of the

State of Massachussetts to grant a new trial im-

mediately, by reason of these facts, lest justice

be trampled upon once more,

Therefore be it resolved that we urge and re-

commend that a new, fair, and impartial trial

be granted these men at once."

--

Insurance is Promising Field for

Soviet Co-operative Work

MOSCOW-(FP)-Insurance is a rapidily develop-

ing activity of the co-operative movement in Russia.

At a delegate meeting of the All-Russian Co-operative

Insurance Union reports showed more than twice

the number of fire insurance policies issued than

during the previous fiscal year, and the same is true

of transport policies. There was a corresponding in-

crease in premiums collected upon all forms of insur-

ance. Insurance in industrial and credit co-operation

much more than doubled. The union has 114 agen-

cies throughout Russia and extensive plans have been

drawn up to develop the movement in the rural dis-

tricts.

Federated Press.

tae SN eee ee,

The report in the Jewish Daily Forward of New

York stating that the All-Russian Clothing Syndicate

is bankrupt was again denied by Hillman. Amalga-

mated members are largely interested in the syndi-

cate through the Russian-American Industrial Corp.,

which was organized by the union in 1922 and is a

big factor in the syndicate. "Two factories in the

syndicate chain in Russia were not doing as well as

they might,' Hillman explains, "but the making of

clothing in Russia is on a sound basis. It happens in

every industrial undertaking that a unit or two will

limp even while the industry as a whole is advanc-

ing soundly.. The syndicate made good clothing and

declared a profit last year, and the Russian-American

distributed a 5 per cent dividend to its stockholders."

Federated Press.

Yt

NHW YORK-The last craft among laundry work-

ers is facing displacement by the machine. The

shirt ironers, organized for 40 years or more, face

extinction by mechanical pressers. Shirt ironers in

2,000 of the 4,000 or more little "hand laundries" of

New York are organized.

Los Angeles

OPEN FORUM

MUSIC ART HALL

233 South Broadway |

SUNDAY NIGHTS, 7-30 O'CLOCK

Program for April

APRIL 5-"THE NHW REGIME IN MEXICo" by

PROF. CHARLES EH. MARTIN, Associate Professs,

of Government at the Southern Branch of the $j

University. Mexico seems to be forging ahead. What

has happened down there to account for the ny

progress? Are the mining and petroleum interes,

of the United States helping or hindering our Sister

republic? Music by MISS EMMA HARDY and yq

AARON KRELL, artist pupils of MAX AMSTp,

DAM, violinist.

APRIL 12-`RADICALISM AND THE BAST

MESSAGH," by ROBERT WHITAKER. All th

churches today are stressing their belief in immorty

ity. What significance hag the doctrine for radicaly

Is there any scientific proof of life beyond thig muy,

dane sphere? What effect upon the present life doy

belief in a future life have? Music by MR. and MR0x00A7

J. A. HLFENBEIN-vVocal and violin numbers,

APRIL 19-"WHAT ARE THE VITAL ISSUES jy

THE PRESENT MUNICIPAL CAMPAIGN. by ATTY

J. H. RYCKMAN. This is regarded as the most jp.

portant campaign that hag occurred in Los Angels

in many years. Tremendous interests are at stak.

What are they? What does Bledsoe really repr.

sent? What are Cryer and the other candidate

standing for? Music by MAX AMSTERDAM, one oi

the first violinists of the Philharmonic Orchestra,

APRIL 26-"THE WORLD COURT?" by MR. BER.

NARD BRENNAN of the University of Southen

California Law School. Mr. Brennan has _ pr.

sented this subject to many groups thruout Californi:

and the Northwest. He hag given it careful study,

and will give both the pros and cons of the argi

ment. Music by BERWYN B. RISKH, baritone, ani

FRANK K. LUNDY, students of the U. S. C.

eS ees

"It is always a pleasure for me.to meet peopl

with ideas, and I am occasionally under the delusioi

that I have a few myself." And the woman wh

wrote this, mind you, was a Roman Catholic.

FH -----_-

"There is only one thing in the world that wil

make as big a fool-of a man as religion, and thal

is-irreligion.'"-Dr. W. H. Robinson.

EXPIRATION NOTICE

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Address ae

WILSHIRE UNDERTAKING

and Ambulance Company

Atlantic 1698--Phones-- Atlantic 3709

717 West Washington St., Los Angeles

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Our Sympathetic Understanding of the needs of the Work

ing People [*nables Us to Give You the Best Service:

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